For Parks Canada this is definitely one of the challenges that we have, in the sense that we realized that we were no longer at top of mind to a large percentage of Canadians because ethnocultural communities did not feel a sense of connection to national parks and national historic sites the way that people who have been in Canada for many generations had.
It was mainly an awareness issue. So the approach we've chosen to use is to target young families and school children through a variety of programs using the curriculum. For example, there's a grade 8 pass that allows them to come for free with their families. So one way to create the interest through the children is to have the families come to national parks and national historic sites.
As well learning to camp is something that a lot of people associate as a traditional national park experience, but has presented a lot of challenges for recently immigrants or new Canadians. So we're using our national historic site lands that are in the middle of large urban areas. For example, we organized a learn to camp session at the Halifax Citadel where, in collaboration with Mountain Equipment Co-op and Canadian Tire, we created a tent site.
There were people there who allowed young families, or more older families, to come in and have the experience of camping. Some of us learned to camp by sleeping in our backyards, but it's no longer necessarily something that people do. So we're offering them a chance to experience it that way. That's the entry point into the potential of discovering more about Canada's nature and going to a national park.
Similarly, as Madame Reid mentioned, when we develop interpretation programs in our national historic sites, we aim to build a bridge between the reality of the countries they come from and Canada's history. First of all, we present the multiple voices we have been discussing—not just one history but all the elements of the history—and also provide them with a reference point from their personal history of the country they came from.
We're explaining, for example, a war event or a social change in a context that resonates and is relevant to them from their reference points. We found that this approach has been very efficient, very effective, because it is really allowing them to discover Canada initially from their perspective and on their terms, making it their personal experience. Then they come out of that with a definition of their sense of Canada, their place in Canada, and the place of Canada in the world.